


Oh Let's Smile

by talefeathers



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: 358/2 Days, Canon - Kingdom Hearts II, F/M, Haynette, Kingdom Hearts II - Freeform, Sunset Hill, Twilight Town
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-30
Updated: 2011-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-18 20:04:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talefeathers/pseuds/talefeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olette's been paying Seifer a lot of attention, and Hayner, for reasons he either can't or won't place, can't stand it. Tensions come to a head when a bunch of kids from school, including Hayner's and Seifer's gangs, gather for a slumber party / ghost hunt outside the old mansion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hayner was stretched out on top of the heater in The Usual Spot, trying to fight the mindless boredom that always descended on him while he did his homework, leaving his brain nothing but a tired blank once he finally finished. He'd never understood what was so important about the work their teachers gave them to keep them busy after school; as if they couldn't find things to occupy their time without essays and equations. He wouldn't do any of it if not for Olette. He grimaced a little at the irony of it. The only thing that could make stubborn, irritable Hayner study was a cheerful, witty _girl._

"Hey, Hayner!" Hayner opened one brown eye to see Pence waddling through the curtain that guarded The Usual Spot from prying eyes, weighed down with various snacks, dark hair all askew and dark eyes childishly chipper. "I brought us some pretzels!"

"Great," Hayner yawned, closing his eye again. "Where's Olette?"

"I dunno. Thought she was with you. Probably shopping," Pence replied, waving a warm, delicious pretzel over Hayner's nose until he snatched it out of the air (still without opening his eyes) and took a bite.

"Where does she get all this shopping money?" Hayner asked, speaking more to himself than to Pence, but Pence answered anyway.

"I think she tutors," he said. "She's pretty good at finding that shopkeeper's cat, too. You know, the one that always runs away and climbs into places and gets stuck? So she probably gets tipped for that."

"Rhetorical question, Pence," Hayner murmured, rolling his eyes beneath their lids.

"I'd catch that cat," Pence went on as if Hayner hadn't spoken, already on his second pretzel; "but it's always climbing up on roofs and into trees and stuff. How does she even climb into places like that? Olette, I mean."

"It's not hard," Hayner said, even though he was just as impressed with Olette's cat-catching skills as Pence was. It wasn't the climbing that impressed him, though; it was the fact that she could get close enough to the cat to catch it without scaring it away. Hayner could climb up to where the cat was easily enough, but it always bolted in terror before he could get close enough to grab it.

"Maybe not for you two," Pence conceded. "What I don't see is what she could possibly be buying," he continued, rambling seamlessly from one topic to the next as was his custom. "The shops can't possibly get new clothes as often as she does."

Hayner shrugged. "She's usually not buying clothes," he said with a sigh. "She likes jewelry and little keychains and things."

They'd had this conversation several times before, but Pence either didn't realize this or he simply never tired of this routine discussion of Olette's shopping habits.

"You know what I mean," Pence replied, waving Hayner off before once more switching subjects with practiced ease. "When do Struggle tryouts start?"

"Next week," Hayner told him for the third time since the day before, stretching his arm out for another pretzel.

"Oh, yeah, now I remember. Seifer was talking about that earlier. He and his posse have been training all year. I think they want to get as many of them into the finals as possible so they can split the prize if they win." Pence handed Hayner another pretzel as Hayner sat up, his interest finally piqued.

"Seifer? What were you talking to him for?" he asked, brow furrowing with suspicion. Being someone who resisted authority as if it were his religion to do so, Hayner liked very little about the creator and self-appointed head of the "Twilight Disciplinary Committee."

"Well, when I was walking back from the icecream shop I saw Olette sitting with him in the sandlot, so I just went over to see if they wanted any icecr - "

" _What?_ " Hayner exclaimed, a bit louder than he'd intended to. "Olette was sitting with _Seifer?_ "

Pence blinked. "Um, yeah. Huh, that _is_ weird. I didn't really think about it at the time."

"What were they doing?" Hayner asked, trying to take some of the edge off of his voice.

"I dunno. Just talking, I think," Pence replied. "Anyway, so I went over..."

Hayner stopped listening, instead focusing on relaxing his hands, which had curled into tight fists. What was the matter with him? So Olette had been talking to Seifer; big deal. On Seifer's gang's turf; so what? Olette could talk to people if she wanted to, even cocky, sarcastic tyrants with superiority complexes. She had probably just been being polite, anyway. Olette was a nice girl; she'd probably just been passing and Seifer had struck up a conversation, that's all. Except...

Except Seifer wasn't one to just strike up conversations with people unless he was picking a fight. And something about the way Olette had been looking at the older boy lately struck a jarring chord in Hayner's chest.

 _Why?_ Hayner asked himself. _Why should you care how she looks at him or if he talks to her? It's not your problem. Let Olette do what she wants._

He chalked it up to friendly concern; he just didn't want Seifer to push her around like he did everybody else, that was all. That didn't feel entirely correct, but it was about as feelingsy as he was willing to get on the subject, at least for now.

"These pretzels are making me thirsty! Anyway, so then Seifer said that if I didn't beat it he'd break both my legs, so I left them alone and went to the station tower to eat my icecream. Oh yeah, now that I think of it, Seifer also said something about not telling you about this under any circumstances, so don't tell Seifer I told you, okay?"

Hayner grunted noncommittally, still only half-listening, taking a bite of his pretzel to get the metallic tang of jealousy out of his mouth. Just as he did so, however, a bright greeting from the other side of the curtain had his stomach dropping like a stone even as his heart floated like a cloud.

"Hey, you guys!" called Olette, pushing the curtain aside with the arm that wasn't strung with little shopping bags. "I found some really cute seashell jewelry! And this _adorable_ bracelet!" She held out her wrist to show them a string of sky-blue beads. "It matches my necklace!"

"Cool!" Pence said, smiling broadly. He could complain about Olette's shopping all he wanted, but it was obvious that at least some of that enthusiasm was genuine.

"Yeah! So did you two finish your homework?" she asked, her bright green eyes shifting to Hayner.

"Yeah, and now I'm bored out of my skull, so you better have come with an idea of what we can do," Hayner pouted. Olette laughed.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead," she said, and Hayner couldn't help but feel a little hurt. Had she assumed that he wouldn't have done his work? Once a delinquent always a delinquent, is that what she thought?

"Some kids at school were talking about spending the night outside that old mansion!" Pence burst out excitedly; no doubt he'd been waiting all day to make this suggestion. It succeeded in catching Hayner's attention, however; the old mansion had a reputation for being haunted. He couldn't let it _seem_ like he was interested, though, at least not at first; that would be sacrificing his cool.

"What do they expect to happen?" he asked. "It's not haunted. They're just going to scare themselves crazy over nothing."

"Well, maybe, but it'd still be kinda fun, don't you think?" Pence persisted.

"Yeah, it would!" Olette chimed in. "And we could bring snacks and tell ghost stories! It'll be like camping!"

"Yeah, c'mon Hayner!" Pence said, encouraged by Olette's support.

"Fine, we'll go sleep outside the stupid haunted mansion," Hayner sighed, unable to hold back the little half-smile that always gave away the fact that he'd been planning on saying yes all along.

"Great! I'll just put these bags away and ask my mom if I can go! Meet back here?" Olette asked.

"Yeah. And if you're not back by five _we are leaving without you!_ " Hayner added for Pence's benefit (he tended to get a little caught up when it came to snack-buying).

"I'll go get some snacks!" came Pence's typical response to such warnings, and the three of them raced out of the Spot in different directions to ready themselves for the night.


	2. Chapter 2

In about an hour the three of them all met back at The Usual Spot, laden with sleeping bags, pillows, flashlights, and various food items. It was still early, so they decided to enjoy some icecream atop the station tower, another frequent haunt of theirs. They laughed about all that would happen that night and speculated about who would show up. Then the sun began its gradual descent and the three friends made their way to the old and presumably-haunted mansion.

 

There weren't nearly as many kids there as had been discussing the plan at school; several had either been unable to get permission from their parents or had chickened out.

"Hey, Hayner! Pence! Olette!" called Ara, one of their classmates. "I brought a camera in case we see any ghosts! You guys should stand in front of the gate together so I can make sure it works!"

"You know, that's not a bad idea!" Pence said, unceremoniously dropping his things where he stood. "When's the last time we had a picture taken together, the three of us?"

"It _has_ been a while," Olette conceded, looking to Hayner for the verdict.

"Whatever," Hayner said brusquely, walking over to the gate that separated the teenagers from the lawn of the old mansion and standing defiantly before it with his arms crossed over his chest. Olette stood in front and to the left of Hayner, and when Pence ran to join the pose he tripped and landed on his face. Olette burst into laughter, leaning her hands on her knees to steady herself. Pence struggled to one knee and raised a hand, assuring everyone that he was okay. Hayner even smiled, loosening up just a little at this comical display. And that's when Ara snapped the picture.

"Thanks, you guys! I'm sure that'll come out really great!" she said, waving the Polaroid in the air so it would develop. For a moment Hayner, Pence, and Olette merely stood where they were, smiling silently at each other, thankful for one another's friendship. Then the moment was shattered by an "Evening, slackers."

Hayner's face became a scowl as he turned to see the scarred face of Seifer, flanked, as always, by his posse: Rai, Fuu, and Vivi.

"Let me guess: this is a disturbance of the peace and you'd like us to break camp and scram," Hayner said coldly.

"That won't be necessary. We'll just be sticking around to make sure you punks don't do anything you'll regret," Seifer said, glaring down at Hayner with his hands on his hips like a scolding father. "Oh, and you three are going to have to move your stuff. This is our spot."

Hayner glared back up at Seifer, showing no signs of moving. Pence, on the other hand, had started gathering his things and was shuffling away from them.

"C'mon, Hayner," Olette murmured, grabbing Hayner's arm and pulling it toward his sleeping bag. "We can still have fun."

Hayner bristled at this. Was she glad that Seifer had showed up? Even worse, had she _asked_ him to? Without answering her, Hayner grabbed his stuff and brought it as far away from Seifer's gang as he could get before dropping it and sitting down with a huff.

For a little while Seifer's crowd's appearance put a damper on the evening; everyone was quiet and uncomfortable under their watchful gaze, and Ara and her friends began to murmur to one another about coming back another night. Olette, who never let a good adventure go to waste, looked hopefully to Pence.

"Pence, don't you know some good ghost stories? Why don't you tell us some while we wait for the real ghosts?"

"Oh, sure!" Pence said, grinning hugely at the attention. "There's a great one about the last family that ever lived in this mansion..."

Everyone began to relax as Pence wove his tale, scooting closer so they could all hear until they were eventually in one large circle; one which closed, to Hayner's dismay, with Seifer sitting on the other side of Olette. She gave him a short smile when he joined the group, and he responded with a curt nod. Hayner rolled his eyes and shifted away from them just a little.

Pence was just getting to the climax of his story, however, when everyone's concentration was arrested by a "Hey, did you guys see that?"

Pence stopped speaking and they all turned to Rai, the incredibly tanned and horrendously muscular member of Seifer's party, who was pointing towards the woods. "I just saw something! It looked like someone running through the trees in a cloak, ya know?"

"It was probably just an animal," Seifer said, waving a hand impatiently.

"Heh, ghost stories givin' you the jitters, big guy?" Hayner asked snidely.

"Wait, I think I heard something!" called Foster, one of the guys in Ara's group. The teenagers began to split into those that looked nervous and those that were laughing at them, as happens on any good ghost hunt.

"I'm serious!" Rai insisted. "I really did see something, ya know?"

"It was probably just a trick of the light. I mean, all we've got are flashlights," Ara offered.

"I don't know, I definitely heard someone running behind me," Foster said.

"Paranoid," came one of Fuu's typical bored-sounding one-word responses.

Olette gave a little gasp and grabbed Hayner's wrist, causing his heart to lurch pleasantly, but when he turned to her to see what was wrong she was already laughing at herself. "Oh my gosh, the curtains in that top window moved and I could have sworn I saw someone standing there!"

"Haha, you're just letting the rest of them get to you, that's all," he said, combing a hand nochalantly through his dark blond hair.

"Guess so," she shrugged, grinning up at him. "Still, haven't you ever thought that maybe there _is_ something in that place?"

Hayner shrugged back. "I guess anything's possible, but I'll believe it when I see it."

"Okay, I saw it that time," Ara said uneasily. Hayner and Olette looked up to notice that their circle was slowly getting tighter.

"I _told_ you, ya know?" Rai cried.

"Not convinced," Fuu said calmly, pushing some of her silvery hair behind her ear.

"Well, let's go investigate!" Pence said cheerfully. "Split up into groups and see if we can find out what's making the noises and the shadows!"

"No, Pence," came the unison response.

"Why not?"

"We'll get lost," Ara said.

"And if it _is_ a ghost, it might not be friendly, ya know?" was Rai's input.

"I just don't feel like getting up," Hayner said, lying down on his sleeping bag with his arms behind his head.

"And I don't feel like keeping track of all of you losers," Seifer finished.

"Besides, it's getting late," Olette said with an apologetic smile. "We should probably try to get some sleep soon." The others murmured agreement to this.

"Fine, fine," Pence sighed.


	3. Chapter 3

They stayed up for a little while longer, eating their snacks and exchanging ghost stories of varying quality, the paranoid ones jumping at every noise from the woods and the mansion, the relaxed ones picking on the others and trying to make them even more jumpy with well-placed spiders and sneaky disappearances. One by one, however, the teenagers began to drop off to sleep. The first, of course, was Pence, and the ritual pranks (drawing a fake mustache beneath his nose, spraying whipped cream into his hand and tickling his face with a feather, etc) were performed while he slept soundly, undisturbed by all of it. Once this first sleeper had been adequately tormented, however, the rest of them dropped like flies, rolling themselves up into their sleeping bags and letting sleep settle over them like dust. It took the scared ones like Foster and Rai a bit longer to fall than the rest, but eventually Hayner could hear their measured breathing, and when Seifer, ever the watchdog, began murmuring in an incoherent sleep-voice he knew he must be the last one awake.

He could feel drowsiness overtaking him and was about to let his eyes, which had been aimed at the stars, slip shut, when from his right came a murmured word, barely above a whisper: "Hayner."

Hayner turned; it was a moonless night, but his eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough so that he could see Olette, obviously asleep, lying on her stomach with her arms curled around her pillow, her brown locks in almost artful disarray. Her dream could have been about anything. She could have been saying his name in any context, for any reason. But even knowing that, and even as he stubbornly denied everything he felt when he so much as thought of her, hearing his name from Olette's dream made him smile.

" _Ow!_ "

Hayner sat up immediately. He'd been explaining away everything he'd seen and heard up to that point, but that had definitely been a human voice accompanied by a very human thud, as if someone had fallen.

"Come on, Roxas, you woke one of them up!" a voice hissed.

"Sorry. I don't know what that was about," came another whisper, this one sounding tired and just a little bit annoyed.

"Who's there?" Hayner called in a carrying whisper. He was met with silence. He grabbed his flashlight and directed the beam in the direction from which he had heard the voices. "I know you're out there."

"Hayner, what...?" Pence. Of course he would wake up _now._

"Shut up," Hayner growled, shoving Pence's head back into his pillow.

"We should RTC," said the first voice, speaking much quieter so that Hayner had to strain his ears to hear him.

"What about the - ?"

"We obviously can't do it now. I'll explain to Saïx."

Hayner very slowly and quietly got to his feet, pressing a finger to his lips and glaring at Pence to make sure he understood the meaning of the gesture. Flaslight turned off in his hand, he crept towards the arguing whispers.

"I'm sorry, Axel," sighed the dejected one, the one that had fallen.

"Don't sweat it," said the other.

For a brief moment Hayner saw two cloaked shadows, a tall one and a shorter one. As soon as he clicked his flashlight on, however, the cloaked figures vanished into the trees.

"Wait - ! Gah," Hayner sighed, wondering already if he was dreaming.

"What was that about?" Pence asked through a yawn, already half-asleep again.

"Go to sleep, Pence," Hayner grumbled, dropping back into his sleeping bag and turning off his flashlight. He fell asleep almost instantly and dreamed garbled, haunted dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

When Hayner awoke the next morning the first thing he heard was Olette giggling softly, clearly trying not to wake the others. Before Hayner could even smile at this, however, he heard Seifer's voice, too, not as quiet as Olette's, but still too low to hear what he was saying. His heart sank while his brain tried (and failed) not to jump to conclusions. He opened his eyes looked up to see Seifer and Olette sitting with their backs against the mansion's gate. It was still fairly early - the sun had only just begun to slowly lighten the sky - so no one else was awake. Olette had a box of cereal that she was sharing with him, presumably because Seifer thought himself too cool to bring his own breakfast to a ghost hunt.

Hayner yawned loudly and sat up, scratching his head and messing up his already-messy hair. Olette smiled and waved him over while Seifer's brows immediately came together in a scowl. Hayner smirked.

"Good morning, Hayner!" Olette said brightly. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," Hayner said shortly, sitting on Olette's other side. "Weird dream."

"Me too!" Olette nodded, holding her cereal box out to Hayner. He shook his head and pulled a granola bar out of his pocket.

"So how long have you two been up?" he asked, trying to sound like he didn't really care.

"I've only been up for about ten minutes," Olette said. "Seifer's barely slept at all."

Hayner gave a derisive chuckle, earning a glare from Seifer. "He was asleep before me," he said as though Seifer wasn't there, knowing that would tick him off. "He talks in his sleep." _And so do you,_ his mind added without his consent. _You talk about me._

"And _you_ snore," Seifer said stiffly. "If I'd been awake any longer _that_ would have kept me up all night."

"Shouldn't a watchdog stay awake all night?" Hayner asked innocently.

"You better check your attitude," Seifer grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah," Hayner yawned, taking a bite of his granola bar. He could see Olette giving him a pleading look from the corner of his eye. This only served to fuel his anger; she wanted him to stop picking on Seifer. _Why?_ "I just assumed you'd monitor it for me. Forgive a simple-minded subject his mistake, my lord."

"Someone needs to teach you to respect your elders," Seifer growled viciously, getting to his feet and standing before Hayner, who jumped to his feet a second later. The others had started stirring and were looking on nervously; they could feel the fight brewing.

"Who better to teach me than Twilight Town's most esteemed self-appointed disciplinary commissioner?" Hayner spat.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Olette cried.

" _Why?_ " Hayner burst. He was letting his fury and (all right, call it what it is) jealousy get the better of him. "Why do you care if I beat _him_ up?"

"I'm worried about _you!_ " Olette shouted back. In the back of his mind Hayner was shocked; Olette had never yelled at him, not like that. He thought about backing off, but the red haze had descended on his mind and there was no stopping now.

"You don't think I can take him?" he asked, rounding on her.

"That's not what I - Hayner, I don't think you _have_ to take him! What's gotten _into_ you?"

" _Why are you on HIS side?_ " Hayner exploded. A species of understanding dawned in Olette's eyes, and Hayner felt a stab of a nearly-foreign emotion: fear.

"Hayner?" she said quietly, searching his eyes for an explanation behind his sudden aggression.

Hayner stood, feeling cornered and casting around for a response, but Seifer beat him to it.

"Oh, this is _precious_ ," he purred. "This is about _Olette_ , isn't it?"

Hayner didn't answer, but he also didn't drop his eyes. He held Seifer's blue-greens defiantly with his browns, even as his cheeks burned with embarrassment. He made a point of not even glancing in Olette's direction, but in his periphery he could see that she had frozen, her green eyes wide and on him.

"It _is!_ " said Seifer, bursting into gales of condescending laughter. "This is about all the time she's been spending with _me_ lately! Oh, Hayner, I wish I'd known you felt this way earlier! I would have _really_ twisted the knife!" Seifer shoved Hayner into the gate.

" _Leave him alone!_ " Olette screamed, her brief paralysis broken.

"Tell you what, chicken-wuss," Seifer said in a low, dangerous voice, his face inches from Hayner's. "We'll fight for her. Just one match. Just one knock-out. Winner-take-all."

"She's not a trophy," Hayner answered, matching Seifer's tone. Still, he was incredibly tempted by his offer. There was very little he wouldn't have given for an opportunity to beat Seifer within an inch of his life right then and there. One accidental glance at Olette cooled his nerves, though. He didn't want to see her eyes any more pained than they already were. "And she said to stop."

Without waiting for a response, Hayner moved Seifer out of his way and gathered his things. Everyone watched him silently, and their eyes burned into his skin like cross hairs, but he didn't hurry, even though being watched like this made him feel sick to his stomach. He maintained the outward appearance of calmness as he shouldered his sleeping bag and his pillow and began leisurely walking back to the tram common, even when Seifer, Rai, and Fuu began to shout insults at his retreating back, trying to get a rise out of him. Only once he was on the tram that ran to his house did he drop his act, letting his head fall into his hands.

"Ugh."


	5. Chapter 5

Hayner dropped his stuff off at his house and told his mom to tell anyone who asked that he was at the beach. When he got to the station, however, he bought a ticket not for the beach-bound train, but for the one that went to the terrace. When he boarded the train fifteen minutes later he was alone in the car except for an old man who fell asleep the moment they started moving, so he stretched out over the seat he was on with his hands behind his head and his legs dangling over the end and thought, as calmly and clearly as he could, about all that had transpired.

By the time the train arrived at its destination, Hayner had worked out, once and for all, what he felt. There was no point in denying it any longer; he had an undeniably gigantic crush on Olette. Goody-two-shoes know-it-all shops-til-she-drops Olette. He had not, however, worked out what he was going to do about this, especially in light of recent events. What had any of that meant, anyway, what had happened at the mansion? All that had actually been verified was that Olette had been spending a lot of time with Seifer lately. Did that mean they were a couple? As he walked through the streets of the terrace, no longer ruled by blind jealousy, he recognized that this was probably not the case. If nothing else, that information would probably have come out in the heat of his argument with Seifer if it were true. But what _was_ going on, then? Why was Olette hanging out with Seifer? And why hadn't Seifer wanted him to know?

After an immeasurable period of time had passed and a likewise immeasurable amount of wandering had been done, he found himself atop Sunset Hill. No one was there but him and the stray dog that had come to be regarded as a sort of community pet. He sighed and sat down in the grass at the edge of the drop, watching the trains come and go, either appearing from the tunnel beneath him or disappearing into it. Then the sun began to set, and since the view of this phenomenon from where he sat was what gave the hill its name, he began to watch that. The sky was beginning to turn orange when he heard a cry of relief from behind him that made his heart leap with joy even as his stomach dropped with dread.

" _Hayner!_ " Before Hayner had even turned all the way around Olette had tackled him, hugging him with all her might.

"Uh," Hayner replied eloquently.

"We were looking _everywhere_ for you!" Olette cried when she let him go. She was trying to look angry with him, but a goofy grin kept pulling up the corners of her mouth. "Your mom said you were at the beach, but we went and we walked for _hours_ and we never found you and we were so worried so we split up and we've been looking _everywhere_ and.... and..." She took a deep breath. Then she stopped trying to look angry and just smiled. "Hayner, I'm just glad you're okay."

Hayner laughed, looking away in what he hoped was an aloof manner while he tried to hide his glowing cheeks. "Come on, Olette, you know I'm always okay. What could possibly have happened to me?"

Olette's smile faded a little at this question, and Hayner realized with a pang that she had probably thought of many scenarios while they searched for him. He suddenly felt awful for all of the unnecessary anxiety he had undoubtedly put his friends through.

"Sorry," he muttered. Olette's grin widened again and she giggled.

"It's okay. Like I said: I'm just glad you're okay."

They sat side-by-side in silence for a moment, watching the sun paint the sky as the day bowed out to make way for night's entrance. Hayner had been sitting silently for most of the day, however, and his curiosity couldn't handle it anymore.

"So..." he started carefully, still unsure of how best to approach the problem. "You and Seifer..."

Olette blushed, but her face hardened. "No," she said firmly. "Not ever."

"So why have you guys been hanging out?"

Olette sighed, but her eyes sparkled just a little. "Well, Seifer didn't want me to tell anybody, but I guess since he was such a bully earlier..." Olette made a show of looking around as though making sure no one was near enough to overhear, then leaned conspiratorially towards Hayner. "He's failing English. I've been tutoring him."

Hayner blinked, taking a moment to comprehend what had just been said. Tutoring. That was it. Seifer was failing a class. Olette was tutoring him. Olette was _tutoring_ Seifer. It made so much sense, but at the same time was so ridiculous. Hayner fell back and busted out laughing.

Olette laughed, too; Hayner's glee was contagious. He laughed until tears fell from his eyes. Tutoring. All of this had happened because Seifer was failing a class and didn't want anyone to know.

"Oh, that is just too good," Hayner said once he started calming back down, wiping his eyes with the heels of his hands. "I cannot believe... Hahahaha! Oh, _man!_ "

Olette giggled and nodded, happy to have brightened Hayner's otherwise dismal day. She allowed another silence to pass between them. They watched the sun's colorful descent, admiring the oranges and pinks and reds that the sky tried on as if deciding what to wear to an upcoming ball.

"So, um..." Olette had her knees curled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her shins. She fiddled with her shoelaces and bit her lip, weighing her next words carefully before continuing. "So why did it bother you so much, Seifer and me?"

Hayner shrugged, not meeting her gaze. "He just... doesn't seem right for you," he said, trying to edge his way around giving a truthful answer without downright lying to her.

"Why not?" Olette pressed.

"You're not actually _considering - ?_ "

Olette laughed, and Hayner realized with embarrassment how overly-concerned he must seem. He chuckled at his own blunder. "No, but see?" she said. "That's what I'm talking about. Why do you react like that?"

Hayner sighed. "Look," he said, turning to face her. "I just don't want him to walk all over you like he does everybody else." With that said, he turned back to the sunset. Olette continued looking up at him for a few moments, trying to read his deep brown eyes.

"What about you and me?" she asked quietly.

Hayner had to concentrate and remaining outwardly calm as a tremor of hope ran through his veins. He faced her once more, with what he hoped was an inquiring but aloof expression on his face.

"What _about_ you and me?"

"You know. Us. Together. Like you thought I was with Seifer." Olette shrugged, face growing redder by the second. "It's something I've been thinking about for a while, so I was just wondering what you thought about it."

Hayner wasn't able to keep his pure bewilderment from his features. Through the entire process of falling for her, through the denial and the acceptance and the confusion and the jealousy, he had never once dared to hope that she might fall for him, too.

"I've, um," he said before pausing to regain his composure. "I've been thinking about that, too, actually. A lot. And I think..." His usual confidence was flowing back through him now, Olette's smile putting his fears in the past. He gently curled his left hand around her right one. "I think that'd be nice."

Olette squeezed his fingers. "I think so, too." Then, as quickly and softly as a butterfly brushes a branch, Olette kissed him on the cheek. Hayner thought the thrill that jolted through him at that fleeting touch should have killed him then and there; it was an overdose of joy that should have shot him straight to the moon. All it managed to do, however was turn his grin dopey and make his mind fuzz over with happiness. This must be some kind of elaborate daydream. She was so different from him that it was a wonder they were even friends, and here she had kissed him. The sheer impossibility of it made the fact that it was true all the more wonderful. Olette laughed at him, and he let her; he could only imagine how dazed he must look, but he was helpless against his pure, unexpected bliss.

"Um," Hayner cleared his throat. "Thanks. You know, for that."

"Any time," Olette giggled, turning shyly back to the sunset even as her blush was beginning to fade.

 _She's just as relieved as I am,_ Hayner realized. _She was just as worried about me not liking her back as I was about her liking Seifer._

Before he could even think about it (which, admittedly, was the way Hayner did most things), he gently turned her face back towards his. He held her eyes with his as he leaned closer, meaning to remove all doubt from her mind as to the way he felt about her. Their lips were almost touching. Hayner's eyes slipped shut.

"You found him!" They sprang apart and tried to look as casual and innocent as possible as Pence, panting heavily, hurtled over to where they sat. "Aw man, is it good to see you! Olette and I were looking _everywhere!_ I went and got us some icecream, but it's starting to melt, so we'd better hurry and eat it now!"

Olette sighed and rolled her eyes, and Hayner laughed at her frustrated expression, sneakily reclaiming her hand. Pence could always be counted on for poor timing, that was for sure.

"Thanks, Pence," Hayner said, taking an icecream bar and handing it to Olette before taking one for himself.

"No problem!" Pence said, plopping down in the grass on Hayner's other side. "Man, what a sunset, huh?"

Pence had already missed the best part, as the sun was now almost below the horizon line, but Hayner nodded anyway. "Yeah," he said, giving Olette's hand a squeeze.

The three of them watched the sun disappear, giving its stage over to the stars, which appeared one by one as the sky darkened from bluish-gray to deep navy. None of them said a word while they watched this performance, not even Pence; they merely sat on the soft grass and felt the night taking form around them. Never had any of them been so struck by the beauty of their surroundings, so grateful for the closeness of their friends. Never had any of them been so content.


End file.
